Putin's previous judo companion states he has royal residence which resistance web links to Russian leader

By Gleb Stolyarov

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian business person Arkady Rotenberg claimed on Saturday he has a big royal residence in southerly Russia which incarcerated Kremlin doubter Alexey Navalny has actually connected to Head of state Vladimir Putin.

Navalny as well as his anti-corruption structure have actually released a video clip in which they affirm the luxurious estate came from the Russian leader. The video clip has actually been checked out greater than 103 million times.

Rotenberg, Putin’s previous judo competing companion that offered his risk in gas pipe building and construction company Stroygazmontazh in 2019 for an amount which RBC company daily placed at some 75 billion roubles ($990 million), claimed he acquired the royal residence 2 years earlier.

“Currently it will certainly no more be a trick, I am the recipient,” Rotenberg claimed in a video clip released by Mash network in Telegram. “There was an instead difficult center, there were a great deal of financial institutions, as well as I took care of to come to be the recipient.”

He offered no additional monetary information of the acquisition or just how it had actually been moneyed.

Putin has actually currently refuted possession of the royal residence.

Navalny was remanded captive for 1 month on Jan. 18 for parole offenses he states were rigged as well as might encounter years behind bars. He was apprehended after flying back to Moscow from Germany, where he had actually been recouping from a nerve representative poisoning last August.

After Navalny’s apprehension countless individuals signed up with unauthorized demonstrations throughout Russia last Saturday to require the Kremlin launch Navalny from prison.

Navalny’s advocates intend to hold additional objection rallies throughout Russia this Sunday. Authorities have actually claimed they are prohibited as well as have actually pledged to damage them up.

Rotenberg was amongst the Russian authorities as well as company execs blacklisted by the USA as well as various other Western powers in the results of Russia’s addition of Crimea in March 2014.

Russian cops on Saturday restrained Sergey Smirnov, editor-in-chief of independent media electrical outlet Mediazona, in Moscow on uncertainty of participating in last weekend break’s Moscow objection, Mediazona claimed on Saturday.

($1 = 75.7500 roubles)